FORD UPSCALES

THEIR 3D PRINTING
WITH BIGREP
Discover how Ford Motor Company continues to innovate
with large format after 30 years of additive expertise.

It’s no longer a secret that the automotive industry is a major adopter of 3D printing
technology. Auto giant Ford Motor Company, based in the US with a worldwide presence,
purchased its first 3D printer – the third SLA 3D printer ever to hit the market,
in fact – in 1986.

The company’s only research facility outside the United States, Ford Research
& Advanced Engineering Europe, opened in 1995, is dedicated to advancing
the next generations of Ford’s vehicles and their manufacturing processes with
additive manufacturing technology. As the company that pioneered the automotive
assembly line, forward thinking is in Ford’s DNA.

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

 Exploration of and investment into 3D printing has picked up
at Ford in recent years, and most recently they’ve been going even bigger.

“3D printing is not a new technology, Ford has been using it for decades, but in the last
years 3D printing became more and more relevant as a ‘real’ manufacturing technique,”
says Lars Bognar, a Research Engineer in Advanced & Additive Manufacturing at Ford
Research & Advanced Engineering, Europe. “That’s why Ford’s research activities in that field
were increased. Now 3D printing plays a big role.” From its start with SLA 3D printing Ford
also moved to embrace additional additive technologies. The company sees regular use
of SLA, SLS, FFF, and L-PBF 3D printing processes and continuously acquires new systems
to suit its growing needs. In 2017 Ford Research & Advanced Engineering, Europe added
a big new player to its FFF 3D printing capabilities: the BigRep ONE.

Working primarily on jigs and fixtures, tool tryout-parts, and manufacturing equipment,
Ford’s BigRep ONE is used in many of the day-to-day necessities of a busy automotive
manufacturing and research center.

Especially helpful for the team at Ford is the variety of materials available to print with
the BigRep ONE. According to Bognar, the most-frequently used materials there include:

The BigRep system’s massive

PLA For mockups of original components cubic-meter build volume opened
larger production opportunities
and application-driven thinking
PA6/66 For strong jigs and fixtures
for Ford’s 3D printing processes, but
the following four applications stood
TPU For protection parts out as creating unmatched value
in their facility.

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

FAST, EFFECTIVE &
AFFORDABLE WELDING FIXTURES
Before investing in large-format additive, Ford’s
welding fixtures had to be manufactured from
metal in a highly manual machining process.
Ford requires about 190 fixtures for a single
prototype (without any potential for reuse)
and lead times for machined fixtures were often
as long as 3 weeks. The manual process created
a significant time sink and left their design
and production processes vulnerable to severe
bottlenecks. Once finished, Ford’s team still had
to wrestle with setup and tear-down processes
that proved labor intensive with heavy machined
metal parts.

After turning to the BigRep ONE, Ford’s plan

for welding fixtures changed. Because the additive
manufacturing process is hands-free, Ford can
now print their fixtures overnight in a lights-out
manufacturing setting for a fraction of the previous
cost and have them in use on welding tables the
next morning. This new, efficient process frees
Ford’s skilled workers for more demanding tasks
throughout the day.
Fords welding fixture workflow changed from:
Traditional Additive
1 Plot clamp 1 Design fixture
2 Design fixtures Print
2 hands free
Ford has taken full advantage of their
new fixture manufacturing process and
materials. Their newly minimized setup
and tear-down times have reduced Ford’s
labor even further given the increased
opportunities for application-specific
design and new lightweight, high heat
deflection materials. They’ve even
started implementing closed-loop supply
practices, shredding their used tooling
to recycle plastic fixture material in a
highly efficient and environmentally
friendly supply practice.

3
Mmachine
anually
fixtures 3 Mount fixtures
In a telling result this first of Ford’s
applications for their BigRep ONE saw
a complete return on their investment.
4 Layout fixtures With the printer’s value returned so
quickly in its first application, the team
5 Mount clamps was able to consider more uses for

6
Amodular
lign
ends
additional value.

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

SIMPLIFIED,
LONG-LASTING JIGS
Jigs are reusable, application-specific tooling By creating the tooling with low-cost, lightweight
designed for manual tasks like accurate thermoplastic material instead of traditional
component fitting. metals, Ford has enabled multiple tooling
iterations to personalize and massively reduce
Because jigs are precisely measured, they have the weight of their team’s equipment.
added value as a quality assurance tool used
to confirm that products meet proper specs.
Not only does this add value to an already existing
asset, it saves time and money that would be
spent developing other quality assurance tools.

Traditionally made jigs require many iterations

and an 8-10-week lead time. By 3D printing them
in-house Ford has significantly decreased the time
between iterations, creating jigs in just 2-3 days
for an astounding 94% decrease in lead times.

Hand jigs, which as the name suggests are jigs used

by hand that ensure alignment but don’t hold the
larger product in place, provided an additional
application for Ford’s large-format BigRep 3D
printer. Low production volumes make 3D printing
a more economically viable choice to produce
hand jigs while also providing an opportunity
to improve the tools’ ergonomics.

Sensor Fixture

Designed by: Ford Motor Company

Dimensions: 890 x 1010 x 110 mm

Nozzle: 1 mm

Layer Height: 0.6 mm

Part Weight: 4.1 Kg

Filament: Black ProHT

Printing time: 51 hours

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

COST-EFFECTIVE RAPID
PROTOTYPING AND MOCKUPS
Prototyping and mockups remain key applications
for 3D printing, and the ability to carry them out in
large format has helped Ford in several use cases.
When Ford needed an engine alternator for one
of their prototyping cycles, only a prototype of
the alternator had been available. Purchasing
a prototype like this is prohibitively expense,
but Ford needed the part early to test fit and
create their complicated tooling. Ford used a 3D
printed mockup as a stand-in for the alternator
while it was unavailable, allowing their team to
carry on with the prototyping process and avoid
a serious bottleneck or expense. While the 3D
printed alternator was not functional, it was highly
practical in testing plant equipment like grippers,
carriers, and trays to ensure they would work with
the final alternator’s geometry.

A front-end module with a complicated design process saw a similar use of additive
as the complex component required a great deal of prototyping before a final design
could be determined. Interfacing with different departments leads to many iterations,
which traditionally has led to expensive tool changes and multiple long lead times.
By 3D printing in the development phase, parts are put to design examination much
earlier and iterated quickly without any tool changes – drastically accelerating
their iteration cycles.

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

TIME-SENSITIVE
PART TESTING
Part testing has also proven a strong use for Ford’s 3D printed parts. When a battery case
was unavailable for testing and shipping was too expensive, a 3D printed mockup was
able to take its place. Because only a simplified geometry was necessary for testing,
a 3D printed case was easily created for fast, inexpensive testing that kept all
processes in motion.

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

 FINDING MANUFACTURING
PARTNERSHIPS
Not only are their large-format additive systems a great fit for Ford, but they’re also
finding a strong partnership in working with BigRep’s Germany-based team.

“BigRep is a quite new company, we established a close partnership during the

last two years. We are working closely together to improve the usage of their
products. In some cases it’s even a co-development,” Bognar said.

That relationship allows Ford to gain earlier access to the specific tools they need
to continue streamlining their operations. As the team at Ford Research & Advanced
Engineering Europe has been finding, advances in 3D printing are leading to advances
in operations, and that’s big for automotive.

Bognar’s team at Ford experienced ROI for their system by implementing its first
application, quickly proving the new investment’s value.

“After the first successfully implemented applications the good news spread
very fast internally,” Bognar said. “Since Ford is a big company with
many different departments, the machine is now running 24/7.
That’s why we bought Wthe BigRep PRO.”

Investing in another BigRep machine underscored the benefits Ford realized from the
first. The newer machine, the BigRep PRO, offers the same large build envelope with
more advanced features. With the ability to print abrasive, engineering-grade materials,
the BigRep PRO is designed for creating functional prototypes, composite tooling,
and end-use products – making it a nice fit for Ford and for the automotive industry.

For more information about BigRep’s 3D printers visit bigrep.com

1000 x 500 x 500 mm 1005 x 1005 x 1005 mm 1005 x 1005 x 1005 mm 1500 x 800 x 600 mm

Ford Upscales their 3D Printing with BigRep BigRep.com

 REDEFINING ADDITIVE

bigrep.com

EUROPE NORTH AMERICA APAC

Gneisenaustraße 66 400 West Cummings Park Suite 120 Lower Delta Road
10961 Berlin 1675 Woburn, MA 01801 #04-04/05 Cendex Centre
Germany United States Singapore 169208
Phone +49 30 20 84 82 60 Phone +1 781 281 0569 Phone +65 6909 8191